Pregnant dog temp

Question
I have a pregnant jack russell/beagle mix. Today she should be 55 days preg, due to the online calendar that I used to calculate date of whelp, she mated only once on 10/6. Anyway I started taking her temp to get an idea what is average for her due to the site I used for the calendar says that I should start taking temp around day 59. I took temp at about 9p last night and got a reading of 97.6 I took it again about 3a this morning and it was 98.0 I took it again at around 9a and it was 99.9 and a 4th time about 20 min ago and it was 98.9. So as you can see I have yet to get a reading of 101.0 like the sites I have visited have stated it should be and to watch for it to drop below 99.0, is this normal for some dogs to have a lower temp or could this be it. Will 55 days be too soon? I don't know what else to do at this point. Also she was nesting like crazy last night and this morning when I took her out for a walk and she went potty she had, what I would describe as a human loosing a mucus plug before their labor starts, slim dripping from her, no color though it was clear with maybe a little yellow ting, but not sure if the yellow was from her urine. Any thoughts or advise will be great. Thanks Amber

Answer
Hi Amber

Gestation is 63 days.  55 days is too early.  The problem I have with taking temperatures is this, you have to know what your female runs when she's not pregnant, she may run a little higher or lower making your degrees off by a point or two.   Also, everything can change a temp, drinking water, going outside, laying in bed, etc.

The mucus plug can start to expel anywhere from 10 days to a few hours prior to whelp.

The best thing to do is always the hardest, sit back and let Mother Nature do her thing.

Good luck